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April 21

How come

When I download some files, when I look at the file name it seems to contain a bunch of "Squares" and other seemingly random characters? Vivio Testarossa^{Talk Who} 01:09, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

You're opening the file with the wrong program. What is the extension (file type) of the file you're trying to open? Useight (talk) 04:08, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Or, on the other hand, if this is when you're looking at the file's icon, perhaps it just saved like a temporary file, and you can just rename it. Useight (talk) 04:09, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Does the filename contain non-alphanumeric characters? There may be an encoding issue if the filename is in, say, Japanese, and your operating system isn't expecting it. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 04:23, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Can you give us a link to the files on the web? That way someone else can download it and check to see if the problem is isolated to you. - Akamad (talk) 10:07, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Gmail bug?

Hi

When I close my Gmail window in IE 7.0, hundreds of Gmail windows start popping up and the only way I can stop it is to restart my computer. My virus scanner doesn't detect anything. Does anyone have any advice or information about this?

Thanks

Aaadddaaammm (talk) 05:57, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

That does sound like a virus. Are you having the same problem with, say, Firefox? - Face 08:10, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Mozilla Thunderbird: resetting folder tree

Does anyone know how to reset my folder tree in Thunderbird to no longer show folders I have deleted in another mail client? Guroadrunner (talk) 06:00, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Could you give more information? Are you using an IMAP service? Kushal 11:28, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it utilizes an IMAP mail server.

To give more information, I deleted some folders in my account online within my university's online mail website. Thunderbird still shows the folders, though, and produces an error when I attempt to delete them off the list in my Thunderbird folder tree. I would like these folders that are now deleted to no longer be shown in Thunderbird. Guroadrunner (talk) 15:03, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Suspected spyware

Sorry for not searching, but my problem now with suspected spyware is quite urgent. I found that a web

http: //searchportal.information.com/sp/popup.mas/?epl=01560057R1UMXGYWVlEFDVFbC1VRBlIBVwJFUVgMAFxbVllZVFgCBVMBClwLBU9eDU5RFUhaD1IJERNdVhIECFBAUUBBCkUSFlFUDF1TPl8LB2cED1c_WAlYCEBHXFEbBQkODQRcBA1SCw9dBQFTA0QCZwwCDlUMXwZa

(Warning: don't really open it as I think it could be harmful; I put it here for reference)

It pops up in my IE window fairly regularly. Then I checked my c:/program files/ and I saw a folder called C:\Program Files\Conduit\Community Alerts with a .dll file called Alert.dll (I think this has been something that keeps on producing such weird stuff) but it's activated so I can't shift+delete it.

So my question is: as I suspect it's a kind of spyware (something that let ads pop up repeatedly), how can I remove it - like through de-activating the .dll file?--147.8.16.233 (talk) 08:22, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

No idea what "Community Alerts" is, but searchportal is definitely spyware designed to raise money on a pay-per-click basis. Don't click on any of the ads presented to you - it's only giving money to these scumbags. A google search reveals lots of forums discussing this spyware infection and how to get rid of it. You could try to remove it manually and you will probably do a better job of it yourself, but in my experience this kind of spyware is hard (but not impossible) to get rid of completely. Astronaut (talk) 09:16, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Before I have time to deal with it (I can't use the machine now)... how possible is it to use administration tool to stop the .dll (as a service)? I'm using Windows, btw.--147.8.16.233 (talk) 09:24, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Which version of Windows? If you really suspect Alert.dll, try to find out what is using it. If using Win 2000, XP, or Vista, the Task Manager lets you view running processes (and services in Vista). If the name is obvious, you can try stopping that program/service. The utility program msconfig.exe (maybe winconfig.exe on some Windows versions?) lets you control what is started when you reboot. Be careful though, some non-obvious names also appear and they are critical parts of Windows. Astronaut (talk) 09:42, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Try using process explorer to view running processes. Works in all windows above 3.1. xxx User:Hyper Girl 10:12, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

I've deleted some files. I checked the running processes and I found that a couple of exe's are simply "fake files". For example, when I have a normal windows system file called svchost.exe, I could see (by sorting by name) some svch0st.exe's. Then I just used msconfig, stopped activating them on startup, and shift deleted the most obvious fake files. Then I could delete Alert.dll by one click, and there's no more popping up! That was successful, but I wonder if there are any remaining files.--147.8.16.254 (talk) 08:13, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

A full system scan in safe mode using a good anti-spyware program should help. Kushal 11:25, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Good anti spyware programs include Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware, both are free and work with each other, and chances are will be able to remove your annoying infection. To stop this happening in the future you could try running an alternative web browser such as Firefox or Opera web browser TheGreatZorko (talk) 13:01, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Over 4GB on fat32

I'm trying to download a 4.3GB file on utorrent but my drive is fat32, which limits to 4GB. What can i do, short of reformatting the drive to NTFS which I can't do? Thanks everyone! xxx User:Hyper Girl 10:09, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

I assume compression is no good because it is already pretty well compressed and you would need to put it somewhere first before you compressed it anyway. Try to find something that has a greater capacity, for example an 8GB iPod Nano, or an 8GB SD card, or another (external?) hard disk formatted ntfs/ext3. Or find a torrent that supplies the data in smaller chunks - I'm assuming this is a DVD video which rarely contain one title (single .vob file) of 4.3GB. Astronaut (talk) 10:37, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah they are DVD iso files, in total there is about 30GB of it. The SD card is a good idea, I have one for my camera and I'd only need to buy a USB thing to attach it. They are pretty slow though. Thanks for your help. xxx User:Hyper Girl 10:41, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

(personal attack by User:Green_t-shirt removed)

Stupid why? Are you assuming this is a pirated movie or something? There's nothing to imply this is not a legitimate and legal file transfer, so shouldn't we assume the best, answer a simple how-to question, and let the poster worry about any ethical dilemmas (s)he might not be sharing with us?

Anyway, most torrent programs allow you to go in and say which individual files in the torrent you would like to download (though it it not always obvious how to do this; try different tabs, a properties window for the torrent, etc.). Some even allow you to control things at the level of individual file chunks (I believe Azureus does, for example). Depending on the application, you may have to download a few files/chunks, then remove the torrent and re-load it. It might be a pain in the butt, but downloading a few files or chunks from the torrent at a time should work if you are desperate. If you've downloaded files in pieces, you'll have to find another application to piece them together again when you are ready, though that shouldn't be too difficult. --Prestidigitator (talk) 16:31, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

That Green t-shirt guy isn't very friendly, in case you didn't notice. I believe you can use Partition Magic to make a NTFS partition out of an existing partition without any loss of data. It can also convert FAT to NTFS without loss of data as well. I'd still back-up anything important, however. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 17:27, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Windows XP comes with a FAT -> NTFS inplace converter. --antilived^{T | C | G} 22:05, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Wow! I pop out for a few hours and someone calls me "stupid". Too bad they've been blocked for such abuse. Anyway, Hyper Girl specifically said moving to NTFS was not an option, though she didn't say why. But, perhaps the OS doesn't support NTFS, maybe it's not her computer, maybe there's no spare unallocated space on the disk into which the partition could be expanded. Astronaut (talk) 00:20, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

XP re-reinstall

Fed up with Vista, i wanted my good XP Pro back. I got the install disk to install XP on my iMac via Boot Camp. When I went through that whole process, XP told me this "Missing File <Windows Root.\system32\hal.dll Please reinstall." So I did reinstall, and it still doesn't work. Please help me get XP working again, I want to play Team Fortress 2! --Randoman412 (talk) 13:05, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

The Microsoft team did not spend years of research and development for you to install their operating system on a rival company's computer. Green t-shirt (talk) 15:55, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

But Apple DID spend a lot of effort making their Macs with EFI work with Windows with Bootcamp. Is you XP disc a full retail disc or an OEM one like the ones that come with computers and laptops? And did you use bootcamp to do ALL the partitioning? This says that you need to use Bootcamp to delete the Windows partition, then repartition the Windows drive, then install XP. --antilived^{T | C | G} 22:03, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

I erased the Boot Camp Partition, made a new one, re-re-reinstalled XP, but it still doesn't work. It gives me that error message mentioned above. --Randoman412 (talk) 00:04, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

It sounds like a faulty disk? Are you running a self made slipstreamed disk or something? hal.dll is the hardware application layer file, and is very important in the running of windows, and either the disk is corrupted in such a way that only that file is missing, or the disk never had it on in the first place. Try getting an alternative Windows XP disk, your licence key should work fine with it, as long as its an XP Pro disk. TheGreatZorko (talk) 12:58, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

"No more fuzzy channels"

I went and got several CECB (TV digital to analog converter boxes) and, sure enough, I have no more fuzzy channels. Unfortunately, I instead have channels that freeze up, have macroblocking, drop audio, etc., which is worse than the fuzzy channels were. I'm using the Zenith DTT900 converter boxes with the old TV "rabbit ears". The problem, of course, is that the signal those antennae get was fine for analog TV, but not for digital. So, what to do about it ? I don't want anything that requires a monthly payment, like cable or satellite TV, as that ends up costing far more in the long run. I don't believe we're allowed to put antennae on top of roofs here, but can put them in our attics. An omnidirectional antenna is one way to go, another option would be many directional antennae, each pointed toward another station's source. There's also something called a "smart antenna", which I don't quite understand from our article. Is that an antenna that gets feedback from the converter box, and moves itself to get the signal better when it's weak ? My current box doesn't accept a smart antenna input, but I can trade in for ones that do have this, if I knew what it was and how much it helped. I'm in Detroit and want to get the following stations:

Analog   Digital
------   -------
2        2-1
4        4-1,4-2
7        7-1,7-2,7-3
9        (None->Canadian)
20       20-1,20-2
32       (None->Canadian)
38       38-1,38-2
50       50-1
56       56-1,56-2,56-3
62       62-1
66       ?

The worst stations are 38-1 and 38-2, which are low power stations in Detroit. I can't get those much at all. Most of the other channels I get most, but not all, of the time. Including computers with TV tuners, we have 5 TVs in the house, each of which need to get the signal twice, once for the converter box and once for direct analog TV, so the signal needs to be strong enough to be split 10 ways. What does everyone recommend ? StuRat (talk) 14:42, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

You need to get the antenna high, and with as much gain as you can. An antenna with a preamplifier right next to it can over come some loss in the cable, and may be enough to make it watchable. The VHF low band channels will mean that you need a big antenna. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:46, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

A big omnidirection antenna ? StuRat (talk) 02:45, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Don't split the signal ten ways, or if you must, use amplifying splitters. --Carnildo (talk) 21:43, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Go here for the website that will help you find the type and direction of antenna that will work best for your location. 199.67.138.84 (talk) 13:35, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Now, a related question. Rather than running wires all over the house, is there a way I can amplify the signals at the big antenna, then broadcast them on the same frequency, so my rabbit ears around the house can pick them up ? Obviously the FCC wouldn't want me broadcasting at high energy levels, but if it's just enough for the house to get, would that be OK ? StuRat (talk) 02:45, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

That's basically what the antenna amplifier suggested by Graeme Bartlett does, except the amplified signal is sent to the TVs through a cable, avoiding any interference issues (both within and outside the house). Also note that you don't have to split the signal 10 ways if you use converters with an analog pass-through feature. Another option, if you already bought the converters and don't want to get new ones (though you could always try selling the old ones on eBay) would be to install A/B switches (the kind you'd normally use to switch your TV between cable and antenna input) instead of splitters in front of the converters. You'd have to flip the switch whenever you want to switch from a digital channel to an analog one or vice versa, but the advantage over a splitter is that an A/B switch causes no signal loss. (Sigh... it's redlink day today, I see. Oh well, here's some quick Google hits: [1], [2], [3].) —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 13:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, just the antenna amplifier would mean wires running all over the house, which is what I'm trying to avoid, if at all possible. I'd like a converter box with analog passthrough, but they don't seem to be available in my area. I was considering waiting for the MaxMedia MMDTVB03, and ordering it on the Internet, but it appears to have been a total scam. They took money and coupons for them, kept saying production was delayed, then eventually cancelled the orders, refunded the cash, but kept the value of the $40 US government coupons. After that I'm rather reluctant to buy any online. Also, the analog passthrough is essentially just an internal antenna splitter, anyway, so I don't see the diff. Getting up to switch an A/B box every time I flip channels also seems like too much work for me. StuRat (talk) 13:52, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

object oriented programming with c++

1) We declare the static data member in class and outside the class we have to define the static data member. I want to ask if we can only declaire the static data member but not define then which effect are seen in program.

2) Can we define the member function of class first and then static data member?

3) Can we call the static data member with object.

You will get a linker error when you try to link the application from your source files/object files/libraries. You can define the member functions and static data members in any order you want, or even in separate compilation units (non-header source files) if you really wish. Not sure what your third question is asking; you cannot "call" a data member at all (though you can call methods on a data member if it is an object or pointer-to-object type, including 'operator()' if that's what you mean by "calling" it). You can access a static data member from any member functions, including constructors, static member functions, and non-static member functions (also from global methods, code belonging to other classes, and anywhere else if you obey the usual member access control restrictions--just be careful of initialization order). --Prestidigitator (talk) 16:44, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

I think the OP was referring to a member function as a "member", which is true, and that s/he meant is the following code legal:

struct Foo {
 static void func() {}  // you can't reference "this" in here
};

int main() {
 Foo *f = new Foo;
 f->func(); // same as Foo::func()
}

, where you call a static function and use the object only for compile-time resolution; the answer is yes. Also, (pedantry alert), you can declare a static data member and not define it as long as you never reference it (I think; I don't have a compiler or the standard handy). --Sean 00:02, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

pmd (file format)

Hi! I need to open .pmd files, but couldn't figure out how. What software can I use? A friend of mine said it's Adobe Pagemaker file format, but what about open-source analogues? 89.146.76.70 (talk) 19:30, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Filext.com says that it is likely a PageMaker file. I don't know of any open-source equivalents, though. Xenon54 10:39, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The open source equivalent of Pagemaker is supposed to be Scribus, though I've never used it. However it cannot read Pagemaker file formats.

I might be wrong but I think you're going to need to locate a copy of InDesign (Pagemaker's successor) that you could use to open and manipulate the file. I believe there is a 30 day trial you can get from Adobe's website. If it is a long-term project, you'll need to either purchase a copy of InDesign or re-create the files from scratch in Scribus. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:39, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Windows XP Hibernate Mode

I recently started putting my PC into hibernate mode at night in an effort to save energy, save the planet, and save myself from being so hot when I'm trying to sleep. Only the thing is, I'll put it into hibernate mode when I go to sleep, and when I wake up, it will be back on again. So what would cause my computer to spontaneously come out of hibernation? Digger3000 (talk) 21:08, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Somebody moved the mouse? Anyway, I turn mine off at night. Saves even more energy and gives it a rest, too. Useight (talk) 21:51, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Do you have a TV card that can turn on the computer for a recording? Also some Ethernet cards can power up the computer if something interesting has happened. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 22:09, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Hibernate mode saves the contents of RAM to disk, writes a bit to the boot sector signifying that it is in hibernate mode, then turns the power completely off. Anything that could force the computer to turn on from hard off can cause it to 'wake up' from hibernate. (As a side note, hibernate literally powers off the hardware, exactly the same as going to 'shut down', so it uses no more power than a complete power off. You can even turn the computer off at the breaker, and it will 'wake up' from hibernate just fine. When you turn the computer back on, it goes through the exact same hardware bootup as from complete 'shut down', and when it starts loading from the hard drive, the Windows bootloader sees the 'I was hibernating' flag, and instead of doing a cold boot, it restores from the hibernation file. You can see this file in your root directory as "hiberfil.sys", and it should be the same size as the amount of physical RAM you have.) A couple of options are that your computer has a 'scheduled turn on' set in the BIOS that would cause it to turn on at a certain time every day; or you have a 'Wake on LAN' or 'Wake on Ring' set up to the point that it can turn the entire system on. One bit of diagnostics is to do a complete 'shut down' at night, and see if it has turned itself back on in the morning. If not, then it is possible that it is not really shutting off when you enter hibernation. 71.193.207.217 (talk) 22:12, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Do you have an USB-keyboard? Disabling it from waking the computer up somewhere on the control panel, can't remember where, worked for me. --212.149.216.233 (talk) 12:15, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

same here, new HP with vista. hibernate, a couple of minutes later it's back on. then it waits and hibernates. then it's on again. i can hear the fan and/or drive going on and off all night. one of these days i'll see if it does it when it's not plugged in to the internet. but i suspect it might have something to do with indexing or something, whether explicit for searching, or something hidden inside windows. if you fire up the task manager and watch the graph of cpu activity, in windows you can see all sorts of odd things going on in cyclic fashion. Gzuckier (talk) 18:16, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

That's odd. I haven't used hibernate a whole lot, but I've never had this happen the times I have. Ideally, your computer should be completely shut off. It should use no power - you could unplug it and it would still resume your session on return (assuming you've plugged it back in again). The way hibernate works is that it saves the current state of your desktop to the hard drive. When it wakes up, it retrieves that information, loads it into the RAM, and continues. (Standby saves the state directly to the RAM and keeps Windows loaded, skipping that step and allowing for faster wakeup, but it also requires electricity to maintain the information on the RAM. Information is "engraved" onto a hard drive, in a sense, so it needs no electricity to stay there.) It sounds to me that your computer was never fully able to hibernate; if it really is at the point of not using any electricity, there should be nothing that could wake it up except the power button. Even a keyboard - that would only wake it up in standby. Think of it this way: In hibernation, your computer is shut down. Completely. It just knows what to do when it boots back up. I know this sounds ridiculous, but is it at all possible that you bumped the power button? From the way you wrote your question, it seems as though your computer is fairly close to your bed. As for the others saying their computer "cycles" (and your problem with not fully hibernating), that seems like an odd software issue, or possibly a hardware problem (although unlikely). All indexing or any other activity should be terminated when the hibernate process is initiated. Like I said, it's essentially shutting down. There might be a program trying to prevent the system from shutting down, or maybe Windows is just malfunctioning. I'm not sure what could cause this "cycling" (although it does sound like a software issue to me), but I am sure there could be a multitude of possibilities. I would contact a professional - it's probably impossible to tell for sure without a look at the computer itself. Unfortunately, it's probably very expensive, so I'd keep doing research first. Also, if you have a computer savvy friend or family member, I'd have them look at it. You never know, it might be a simple fix that you shouldn't waste money on having examined. But if all else fails, I'm sure a professional could sort it out. Definitely search online help forums (etc.) first, though. Chances are, someone's had a similar problem, fixed it, and documented their process for doing so.

Full Hard Drive Backup

Is there any way I can make a full backup of my hard drive to another hard drive? I've tried copying files, but Windows XP locks a lot of files so they can't be read. I'd also like to copy the boot sector, master boot record, and all that kind of stuff. William Ortiz (talk) 21:27, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Ghost works very well. Sandman30s (talk) 21:48, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

If you´re just copying between harddrives, dd (Unix) on any Linux LiveCD will work just as well, for free. --antilived^{T | C | G} 21:54, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

A couple examples for backup using dd can be found here. / edg ☺ ☭ 22:09, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

I'll join in with recommending dd. the basic command is dd if=/dev/hd0 of=/dev/hd1 where hd0 and hd1 are the designations of the hard drives you're transferring from and to, respectively. edg's link contains more detailed information. - SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 04:09, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

On http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881 it says, "Some earlier programs that were not written for Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or for Microsoft Windows 2000 may exhibit slow performance after you convert the FAT32 file system to NTFS. This issue does not occur on a clean partition of NTFS." Now I don't have unix or linux. Is there a way to use Ghost or something where it can transfer stuff over so it's like there's now a clean partition and NTFS doesn't go slow for older programs? William Ortiz (talk) 05:17, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

That only applies to when you have converted a FAT partition into NTFS partition. A full hard drive backup, by definition, creates a bit-to-bit mirror to your current drive, so that's not something you would expect a backup utility would do. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:50, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

April 22

Linux backup server system partitioning for Bacula and other questions

I am building a Linux server (Ubuntu Hardy Server) which will primarily be used as a file server (very simple SFTP) and storing backups (Bacula). It has four 750 gig drives that will have software RAID 1 and RAID 5 using mdadm below the file system (ext3). Currently, my partitioning plan is two small RAID 1 partitions for / and swap, and one large RAID 5 partition for /home. I haven't had much experience with setting up Bacula, so my main question is:

• Is this the "best" partition configuration for Bacula?

This question is based on these other questions which I don't know the answers to:

• Where is the best place to store the data and database files Bacula uses for backup?

• Can Bacula store backup data files as separate files based on the user who owns the backups under each user's home directory? Or what about all under one "bacula" user's home directory, while still maintaining access permissions?

• Can the associated database (MySQL most likely) files used by Bacula be too large to fit on a small (<20 GB) root partiton? Could they be broken up accordingly and stored under each user's home directory also?

• Would having a large /srv partition instead of a large /home partition be more appropriate here? I'd prefer to keep the number of software RAID multidisk devices low, and preferably want one very large partition for both backup file storage and user's home file storage.

Some background: This server will be used by only a handful of users to archive and backup and share very large raw audio and video files on a LAN, so it probably wont hold more than a few thousand files in the backup database. Performance is not a big issue, rather the reliability of the backups are and backup and file server storage space, hence the RAID 5 setup.

I've been spending the last week researching these questions and haven't really been satisfied with any partial-answers I've found, so I was hoping some people with experience with this could fill me in. Thank you so much! -- Eric 66.75.102.95 (talk) 06:50, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

(Doesn't look like anyone else wants to jump in, so....) Not help, but questions for my education. Okay, for my entertainment, too, but, still. Why are you using software RAID? Any task that depends upon software will fail if you have a software issue. If you are doing this for data safety, you are making design decisions that lessen reliability. Have you considered hardware RAID? A controller that will let you do either RAID 10 or RAID 5 with 4 identical drives shouldn't be very expensive; certainly less expensive than the drives, and you get all the benefits of RAID without the drawbacks of depending upon your OS & drivers to work right. Your motherboard may support RAID 1 or 10 without any OS or driver help at all, in which case you can eliminate a lot of complexity right there. -SandyJax (talk) 15:21, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I've done a fair amount of research regarding RAID and simple software RAID using mdadm was the best option, plus I've have a lot of experience with it and never had any problems. Using mdadm, I can build, expand, rebuild, and remove RAID remotely from headless servers, and monitor them along with smartmontools and lmsensors. Failed native mode SATA drives can be easily hot swapped by users on site while the server continues to run without any downtime and the RAID is rebuilt in the background. It's free, opensource, and requires no hardware or custom drivers. I've practiced pulling live drives from RAID 1 and RAID 5 setups and replacing them with blank drives and rebuilding the arrays, and everything has worked great without losing data any data. I've actually converted a 2 drive, non RAID system to a RAID 1 mirrored system over SSH from overseas without anybody actually touching the computer, as a demonstration!

If I understand you right, you just said "Software RAID is easier to use". Thank you for clarifying that. Yes, software control makes everything easier. My point was "Hardware RAID is more reliable". A hardware RAID solution fails if the core computer (power supply, motherboard, CPU, RAM) fails, the drive controller fails, or more than one hard drive fails. A software RAID solution fails for any of those, plus also if any of the following fails: the boot drive, the operating system, or the software module pretending to be a RAID controller. As you say, you have not yet seen that. Is this conclusive proof that it is not a danger? So, is reliability not a factor? And, if reliability is not a factor, why bother with a RAID solution of any kind? If reliability _IS_ a factor, then software systems add complexity. Nicer, yes. Safer, no. -SandyJax (talk) 20:11, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Reliability is a factor, however it is not the only one. There's a lot more requirements and capabilities; cost, data integrity, ease of use, flexibility, etc. Software RAID is just the better option. With RAID 1 any drive is a mirror so any drive can boot, and if the OS is down then there wont be any work being done anyway, as the same would any other layer from from actual physical drive mechanics to the applications. Yes, adding one more layer mathematically introduces a higher probability of failure, but it's negligible and accepted with the benefits gained. Believe me, I've read a great deal on the concepts of RAID and best practices, and I've done my research, and what I presented was signed off on, so I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing.

Edit: >as the same would any other layer from from actual physical drive mechanics to the applications.

I take that back, if RAID is working, it wouldn't matter if something failed beneath the RAID layer down to the physical hard drives.

Spreadsheet formula

I'm trying to write a formula to apply conditional formatting in OpenOffice Calc it is supposed to apply the format if three conditions are true and one is false, but it is applying the condition if D413 does not contain "No DNA", despite the fact that the other conditions are not satisfied. I would like it to require all conditions to be true (or rather the first three to be true and the fourth to be false... that's a question of semantics - it should be taken care of because I said 'NOT' in my formula). ----Seans Potato Business 10:25, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

IF(($M413=$M414)AND($P413=$P414)AND($Q413=$Q414)NOT($D413="No DNA"))

Maybe you need to use "AND NOT"? I dont use OOC, but in Excel I would write this like "=IF(AND($M413=$M414;$P413=$P414;$Q413=$Q414;NOT($D413="No DNA"));"do true";"do false")". — Shinhan < talk > 11:47, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Your syntax works. :) ----Seans Potato Business 12:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Did you consider changing the last sub-condition to D413<>"No Data"? [YMMV if <> is not the operator for NotEqual in OOC.] Might be easier to recall "What was I thinking" when you look at it again in six months! -- Danh 63.226.145.214 (talk) 23:16, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

c++

What is the default value of static type char variable?(For ex. Default value of static type int variable is 0) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.157.77.10 (talk) 10:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

It is possible that your compiler will set a default value, but I have seen no such thing in ANSI C or C++. Variables that are not initialized have no value (not even null). It is up to you to set an initial value. So, by definition, your ints won't be initialized to zero automatically. You must do that. -- kainaw™ 11:29, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

This is definitively false! Quoth [basic.start.init/1] of the C++ standard: Objects with static storage duration shall be zero-initialized before any other initialization takes place. Same goes for C. The char will be set to 0. --Sean 12:45, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Kainaw may have missed the static duration part of the question. His statement is correct for variables with automatic duration. -- Coneslayer (talk) 13:03, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes. I did. I only saw "char", not "static char". I actually read the question twice without answering it and then answered it the third time when nobody else did. So, I have no clue why I kept overlooking "static". -- kainaw™ 13:34, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Mobile domain for google earth?

1) I saw in one book that "google earth" is now made in that way that it can be even used in mobile phones... i mean can anyone give me the mobile url for google earth...for youtube it's m.youtube.com & in suchway what is it for google earth....plz give me the exact url address? 2) Are there any websites which will allow us to send multimedia messages from computer to mobile especially in India?

Plz don't mix the above two questions....seperately answer them! Temuzion (talk) 11:02, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Googling for "google earth mobile" gives Google maps for mobile as first hit, and this as second. — Shinhan < talk > 11:43, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

It looks as if http://www.text4free.net/ will let you send MMS messages to some (possibly all) Indian mobile phones. I haven't tried it myself - just searched for send mms free. There are probably other sites like this too. AJHW (talk) 14:59, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

How to increase partition size of a drive without formatting the PC?

I have 3 drives in my PC. I want to increase the partition size of one of these drives. So is there any way to do so without formatting the PC and then make the partitions accordingly? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.18.82.102 (talk) 11:09, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Try Partition Magic. The name is lame, but the program is quite powerful. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 12:26, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

GParted is an open source program to do the same. --LarryMac | Talk 13:30, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

In any event, backup before attempting to use these programs! Sandman30s (talk) 14:11, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Interpreting Licenses

If x -> product, and, y -> another product developed using x: then, I would like to know whether following cases are legal, with respect to the following licenses,

1. GPL
2. LGPL
3. MIT
4. Apache License
5. BSD licenses
6. Mozilla Public License 1.1 (MPL)
7. Common Development and Distribution License
8. Common Public License 1.0
9. Eclipse Public License
10. copyleft

Cases,

1. use x for study
2. use x for profit
3. hack/improve x
4. redistribute x
5. redistribute x, without source
6. redistribute x, under another license
7. redistribute y
8. redistribute y, without source
9. redistribute y, under another license
10. sell x
11. sell x, without source
12. sell y
13. sell y, without source
14. redistribute copies of x
15. redistribute copies of x, without source
16. sell copies of y
17. redistribute copies of y, without source

I know this is not the whole list of possibilities when we use multiple products and each of them with different licenses. Please feel free to change / add the cases and licenses.

Please give me, if there are any similar wiki links.

--V4vijayakumar (talk) 12:10, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Number 10, "copyleft", is not a license, but a philosophy. So you might as well just cross that one out. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 12:48, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

With respect, from Copyleft "Copyleft is a form of licensing and may be used to modify copyrights for works such as computer software, documents, music, and art. In general, copyright law allows an author to prohibit others from reproducing, adapting, or distributing copies of the author's work. In contrast, an author may, through a copyleft licensing scheme" Ironmandius (talk)

Also, I don't know what "redistribute copies" is supposed to cover that "redistribute" doesn't. I've left it off, below. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 12:58, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

In case anyone does feel like helping out with this quite large compilation, I've made a table. I filled in GPL as I understand it; feel free to correct me if I've botched something. There are caveates, of course, depending on what one means by "sell" and "without source." --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 12:58, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, selling a license to use the software seems to be different from selling the distribution rights of the software. Kushal 20:37, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Copyleft licenses

	Use original for study	Use orig. for profit	Make derivatives	Redistribute deriv.	Redistribute deriv. w/out source	Redistribute deriv. under another license	Sell orig.	Sell orig. w/out source	Sell deriv.	Sell deriv. w/out source	Redistribute orig.	Redistribute orig. w/out source
GPL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No*	No	Yes**	No*	Yes**	No*	Yes	No*
LGPL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No*	GPL	Yes**	No*	Yes	No*	Yes	No*
MIT
Apache License
BSD licenses	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes**	Yes	Yes**	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mozilla Public License 1.1	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes***		No	Yes				Yes	Yes
Common Development and Distribution License
Common Public License 1.0
Eclipse Public License

*If downloaded from a website, the website also needs a link to source code. If distributed by CD, etc, provide a written offer of the source code.[4]
**Taking a fee for distribution is allowed, but it is not strictly considered a sale of the intellectual property. *** Excludes trademarks, eg firefox branding.[5]

For sales of orig or of deriv; You are required to inform receiver that the product is licensed under GPL. For deriv it should be noted that products that link the licensed product might be considered derivative works.Taemyr (talk) 13:52, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Developing

With linux developers improving unix-like systems at an alarming rate in an attempt to creat more powerful and reliable operating systems at the same time that microsoft is developing new and improved versions of windows seems somewhat wasteful of electrical energy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.194.74.154 (talk) 14:05, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Do you have a question? --LarryMac | Talk 14:23, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I can assure you that a skilled programmer's time is a far more valuable commodity than the electricity used to power his or her computer. If you want to complain about wasted resources due to duplicated effort, I'd worry more about that than the electricity. But every industry has duplicated effort between competitors. I don't see how you would avoid that, aside from central planning. -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:42, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Competition requires some waste in the form of duplication of resources, but the overall hope is that it will be more efficient than monopoly, which has known drawbacks and inefficiencies as well. Measuring up net wattage is not a good way of measuring the efficiency of an industry in any case. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:58, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Boeing is even known to go so far as having two groups of internal developers independently write a program they need, so they can pick the best. Only a defense contractor can afford this type of internal competition. StuRat (talk) 22:23, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Consider Evolution for the merits of competition. Consider different targets - Ubutnu and Vista versus Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows Server 2003. Then there's Monopoly. Costs are never cut and dry - as a simple hypothetical, suppose there was only Vista. I'd have to spend $500 (yes, there are other editions with other price points) to upgrade my operating system, and my job requires me to use a fair amount of electricity, so that would be a few hours of electric consumption that the existence of Ubuntu has precluded (not to mention that in the hypothetical monopolistic example, the price could be an order of magnitude larger, thus the time I - and every PC user - work to pay for the OS upgrade an order of magntitude longer... see Parable of the broken window. Not to mention, history, forks, and unintented consequences have taken us a long wheres from, say, CP/M Ironmandius (talk) 00:33, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Windows explorer in XP - file rename

I've just made a copy of a file via windows explorer on a PC running XP. Having done that, I renamed the file and XP decided to do the matching rename to the original file. Two questions. (1) Is this normal, I've never notriced it happen before? (2) How do I srop XP doing this. Thanks -- SGBailey (talk) 20:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I think it is trying to autocomplete. I am not sure but it could be based on a setting that you decided on Internet Explorer. Its perfectly OK, and if I see the situation correctly, the extra text should be highlighted, and you should be able to ignore it, and go on typing without pressing 'Enter' when you see XP trying to autocomplete. if I read the situation wrong, please tell us know here. Kushal 20:33, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Cheers. AFAIK, it has nothing to do with Internet Explorer. It definitely isn't OK. I don't want my files renamed by the OS on its whim. It may have highlit the filename, but I wasn't looking at that bit of text, rather I was looking at the filename that I was renaming - and did succesfully. Ctrl-Z restored the old name. I just don't want it mucking me about like this. -- SGBailey (talk) 22:04, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I am terribly sorry if my reply seemed condescending. Please accept my apologies. Kushal 00:45, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I've definitely never heard of that happening. Is this a repeatable problem? Does it happen with every file you copy? - Akamad (talk) 02:59, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

If it only happened once, you might have accidentally selected both files, and the rename operation affected both of them. --Bavi H (talk) 01:51, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

April 23

Swollen caps?

Here at work if there is a computer that is malfunctioning, we can call it in and techs will be sent out during the day to fix it. Emails are sent to the person who reported it on the initial creation of the work ticket as well as when the ticket is amended or closed. I just got one of those emails and I really don't understand what it means. I can't reply because it's an automated address. Besides, it's not that vitally important that I understand what they meant. What was added to the ticket was confusing though, so that's where you guys come in... I reported a system that wouldn't boot up and the response on the work ticket was "Machine has swollen caps and will be replaced tomorrow." So what are "swollen caps"?! Dismas|^(talk) 01:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Swollen capacitors, apparently. Never heard of it myself but Googling the term makes it seem like it's a not uncommon problem. Learn something new every day. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 02:53, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I've never seen it myself but capacitors that are defective or used outside their rated voltages can overheat, bulge or leak, or even pop like firecrackers in extreme cases.

This has been relatively common since 2000 when a surprisingly high number of defective capacitors entered the market. Read all about it at Capacitor Plague. It's an exciting tale of intrigue, engineering, and industrial espionage gone awry.[6] APL (talk) 03:50, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Wow! Thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 05:13, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

It isn't "swollen caps" (which were correctly described above at Capacitor Plague) but it's also interesting to note that some types of tantalum capacitors are famous for, ahem, "smoke events", sometimes producing explosive events. As a result, many electronics vendors have tried to minimize the number of tantalum caps that they use or being very careful to select non-explosive types; "organic tantalums" are generally considered "OK" as are internally-fused types.

Atlant (talk) 21:02, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Which Google page does it show up on?

I'd love to be able to easily input a search string ("widgets and wonders") and a website (http://joeswidgets.com) and know what page of the Google search results it comes up on, if any (e.g., page 5 of that particular search) without me having to wade through the results myself. Surely there is a site that'll let you do that? I can't find one though it seems obvious. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 04:17, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Enter (excluding the [] brackets) [search string site:www.site.com] or similar. EG [widgets and wonders site:joeswidgets.com] -- SGBailey (talk) 14:49, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

That's not what the Captain was asking for. He's not actually trying to find the string on a certain website—presumably, he already knows that. He wants to know how deep in the "global" search results his site falls (cf. SEO), and the "site:" method doesn't tell you that. -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:59, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

computer programs

is there any type of computer program that could be used to activate different devices at certain times such as cameras or lights?Davidsherwood1956 (talk) 05:47, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

How did you wire them up in the first place? --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:47, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

i didn't. i would like to install a system from the ground up. since i am no longer able to get around much it would make my life a lot easier to have something i can adjust from the house. i know that i can put things like lights on a timer but then i have to get outside to change it. the problem with technology is that after a certain age you understand less and less of it. i realize my question may be stupid and judging from others on this site i guess it is,but at this point in my life it's as good as it gets.Davidsherwood1956 (talk) 20:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

It sounds like maybe the X10 system might help. The article is not great, but basically, it is a system that allows you to plug in controller modules to various outlets and appliances, and then control them from a central location. --LarryMac | Talk 20:53, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

And at a higher level of cost and sophistication, LonBus can easily do it.

Atlant (talk) 20:54, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Have you considered using Lego? You might need to get a local nerd to give you a hand, but you can do neat stuff with their techno kits. --Lisa4edit (talk) 08:26, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Dilbert.com

Has the new Dilbert web-site been made by Dilbert himself or by his workmates? 217.168.3.246 (talk) 08:45, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Wow, Let's hope that's an April fool's joke that's gone on too long. (I especially like the fields that just say "sdfsdfsdf".) Personally, even though I'm not a Texan, I read the comics here : [7]. Nice and simple. APL (talk) 12:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

The one good thing to come out of it is that there's now an official feed. In colour and everything! — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 16:53, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Is there any way to view the Sunday strips. Like this one http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-04-20/?Page=3 is completely unviewable and now we can't view the Sunday strips anymore. William Ortiz (talk) 01:51, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Check out the 'Fast' version of the site. It has nothing but the comic as an image and a calendar for finding past comics. The only place it's mentioned is in a tiny link at the bottom of the main site (marked 'Linux/Unix', bizarrely) and on Scott Adams's blog. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 13:20, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Safari browser

Can any one please suggest the reliable website from where i can load Mozilla firefox or sfari browser?Can it be downloaded in the presence of internet explorer?Cheers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.2.174.41 (talk) 09:28, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Are you trying to install Firefox or Apple Safari? If so just go to their website (Firefox or Safari) and download the installer. Internet Explorer should not interfere with either of them. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:45, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Can I pimp Opera here? Since you are trying new web browsers you may as well try all 3 of the "alternatives". TheGreatZorko (talk) 12:54, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Yep, Opera Internet Suite is a good package. However, I would still recommend Mozilla Firefox to anyone who can install it themselves (they will be able to install addons too). Kushal 10:54, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

CNF for QBF₁

Can a formula in QBF₁ be transformed into conjugation normal form without while remaining in QBF₁ and without exponentiall growth? Taemyr (talk) 10:39, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Ant vs Make

Is Ant any good? What can it do that Make can't? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.223.156.1 (talk) 11:06, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Since Ant uses Java implementations of many tasks where make calls shell commands, it is more portable to non-UNIX platforms. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.210.249.81 (talk) 08:20, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Additionally, Ant has a variety of plug-ins that semi-automate a variety of compliation tasks, especially Java-ish ones. See for example many of the Java-specific addon tasks here. While the functionality of these tasks could be replicated by custom Makefile commands and/or shell scripts, having a library of pre-made tasks means you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Warmfuzzygrrl | Talk 18:17, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Hex to dec in PostgreSQL

Is it possible to convert a hex number to decimal using PostgreSQL's functions only, that is without a custom function or without data manipulation via eg.. a Perl script? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.131.116.233 (talk) 11:20, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure if this applies to PostgreSQL, but in Oracle Database, there is a built-in function called "TO_NUMBER" which is used like:

select TO_NUMBER('FEE0','XXXX') from dual;

The number of 'X's must be the same or greater than the number of digits in the hexidecimal number. PostgreSQL probably has a similar function, but I'm not sure. 137.148.165.235 (talk) 16:07, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Good attempt, and PostgreSQL has a to_number function, but it looks like it doesn't support the "X" conversion. It does, however, support Roman numerals, which I'm sure comes in handy far more often. It looks like the to_hex function might be what you want—I'm not completely sure from your question what exactly you need. -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:30, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

XML "shorthand" language

Hi, a couple of mounth ago i have encounterd a "languge" that alows you to describe a xml instatce in short. for example the xml:

   <animal>
     <dog name="billy"/>    
</animal>

will become something like this:

<animal
   <dog name="billy"

does anybody know what i mean, thx very much:)

That's... an appallingly bad idea. How do you know when a clause ends? If you add another element after that, how do we know if it is a subset of animal or dog? We're not taking whitespace seriously, are we? It strikes me as a really silly thing to sacrifice clarity in order to save a tiny amount of space... --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Check out Simple Outline XML, YAML, JSON. --Sean 17:20, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

MyLibraryDV video playback

I cannot play the MyLibraryDV DRM-protected movies downloaded via my library. The audio part is OK but the video fails to play. I think my Windows Media Player does not have the proper video codec for the movies.

Here's what GSpot says:

• File name: ATK521E.wmv
• File Type: ASF (.WMA/.WMV)
• Mime Type: video/x-ms-asf
• File Length Correct
• Sys Bitrate: 755 kb/s
• Created: 2007 Jul 11 11:49:43
• User data / meta data
  • Aud:WM/WMADRCPeakReference:11480
  • Aud:WM/WMADRCAverageReference:2205
• Audio ← PLAYABLE
  • 0x0161 (WMA v2)
  • 0x01:44100Hz 48 kb/s tot (2 chnls)
  • Status Undetermined
• Video ← NOT PLAYABLE
  • WMV3
  • WMP v9 (VC-1 Simple/Main)
  • Codec Status Undetermined

My Windows Media Player says it's the latest update. Whay can I do? -- Toytoy (talk) 13:02, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

New Username at login page

I've asked this question before, but I can't find the answer. Sorry.

My friend has just received a computer from the wife of a friend of his who passed away recently. Unfortunately, it is password protected with usernames for the family. He has lost contact with the wife and can't ask her to help, so he wants to know how to make a new username so he can login, as he can't get past the login page. Clicking 'cancel' doesn't work (like it used to). If anyone knows the answer to this, could I get a step-by-step guide on how to do it, as I have to go back to my friend's place to do it. He obviously doesn't have internet access, so I had to come back to my place to ask this question.

Either that, or is there any way to find out one of the actual passwords before getting onto the login page?

Much appreciated! --ChokinBako (talk) 14:02, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I have been told to try this - [8] which is a bootable disk (you burn it to a CD and boot from it) and it will allow you to remove the passwords from the account using a part of the program called Picklock or Lockpick possibly TheGreatZorko (talk) 14:32, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Ah, thanks. But I forgot to say the CD-ROM drive is knackered. It looks like someone attacked it with a knife. I've looked around for a compatible one, but it's a 'slinky' one, smaller than the usual ones, and very expensive.ChokinBako (talk) 14:38, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

You could buy a USB CD rom drive, which are relativly inexpensive. The PC will be rather useless without a CD rom drive anyway. Other than that I am sure there are programs that will remove the XP user passwords that will run off a USB memory stick. I will have a look for one. TheGreatZorko (talk) 14:41, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

If it's Windows XP, there may be a workaround. Booting into Safe Mode will probably bring up the account login screen, and there should be an extra account listed called "Administrator". If that account was never given a password, which it wouldn't be unless the owner was computer savvy, you can go in with that account. And because it's the admin account, you can use it to change the password of the other account. Useight (talk) 15:06, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Try ntpasswd. It removes user passwords on Windows 2000/XP, and can be run from a floppy. --grawity 19:13, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Strange BSOD on Win XP SP2

Hi all,

I use an Win XP Home SP2 notebook with some WIDCOMM Bluetooth adapter. All drivers and system is up-to-date. Now, when I activate or deactivate the BT device over HW or SW switch, occasionnally the system BSODs with "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA", file "btaudio.sys". What's wrecked in my system and how can I fix this wreckage?

62.216.214.96 (talk) 16:58, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

XP SP2 has its own Bluetooth stack, and so Widcomm drivers might not work correctly on Windows XP SP2. (Though I had no such problems when I used Widcomm drivers.) What device do you have? --grawity 19:12, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Seems like the BCM 2045...actually it's Broadcom, but the program manufacturer is Widcomm...apparently Broadcom has bought Widcomm.88.217.81.175 (talk) 13:53, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Try this page. --grawity 19:11, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

After applying that update actually stuff broke down, I'm sorry I forgot to mention this...any way to downgrade the drivers? 62.216.215.30 (talk) 20:52, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Don't know what type of PC to go for

What are the pro's and con's of Mac pc's and what are the pro's and cons of windows pc's because i dont know whih operating system to choose? --Hadseys Chat_Contribs 17:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

See religious war for more info. The short, most objective answer is probably that it's down to personal preference. Also, you can get bargain basement PCs, whereas the smallest new Mac you can get will have a higher price than a similar PC. Friday (talk) 17:59, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

related to the above, an article in slate.com (i think? maybe salon.com) a few months back, pointing out that used macs can be resold for at least some fraction of their value, whereas used PCs are basically bulk matter, which tends to mitigate the initial cost differential. other than that, the advice is as it always was: decide what you want to do, then decide what software you want to do it with, then decide what machine will run that software. Gzuckier (talk) 18:12, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I doubt many people consider resale value when purchasing a computer. All (and absolutely all) you need to consider is what you need. What programs will you run? Don't know? You better find out. You don't buy a computer and then wonder what you can use it for. You buy it because you know what what you are going to use it for. Once you know what programs you will be running, see how much the cost on both Windows and Mac. Are they even available on Mac? Tip: Don't emulate. You can emulate Windows in Mac to run Windows programs - but just say no. If you need Windows, buy Windows. If a Mac meets your needs, you can buy a Mac. Finally, once you know what you need a computer to do and what computers can do it, you will have a price range. How much are you willing to spend. I suggest going for the middle-price. There will be dirt cheap options. There will be absurdly expensive options. There will be middle-ground options. Does this plan work? Yes. I purchase computers every week. I refuse to screw around with making them work. So, when a person comes into my office and says that they need the Mac Air. I ask what they specifically need to do. Then, I purchase a computer that meets his or her needs (and it won't be a Mac Air). So, to repeat, you need to know what you need first. Then, come back here and ask "What is a good computer for doing .....?" -- kainaw™ 23:31, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Excellent advice, Kainaw! Kushal 10:50, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, many people don't listen to such reason. For example, most mobile phones are capable of a whole lot more than making phone calls, yet almost no one wants a phone without it being small and light with a colour screen, 2MP camera, MP3 player, web browser, etc. The same applies to computers; when I think about it, my new laptop is far more capable than what I use it for. I bought it because it did all I wanted, plus many things I might like to try in the future, plus it is lightweight, and is a good looking, desirable gadget to have. Astronaut (talk) 15:23, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

The thing is, though, these days there's very little you can do on a Mac that you can't do on a PC, and vice versa. The Mac has traditionally been the computer of choice for creative types who like to do Photoshop, edit music, that kind of thing. But all those applications run fine on a PC as well. Same goes for number-crunching applications which have traditionally run best on a PC - a Mac can handle those very well. Email, web surfing, word processing - you can do those equally well on either platform. So, unless you mostly want to play games on it (for which the PC is way dominant), or run some super-abstruse application, the thing about identifying your needs is a bit of a red herring. You should look, instead, at ease of use, the user interface, security, that kind of thing. And if those become your criteria - as they should - there's only one computer to go for, and it starts with an M. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 13:22, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

My choice would be a PC. Secondly, go for Windows XP because as a general rule of thumb you shouldnt move to a new OS without 2 service packs being released first, in this case, for Vista. XP has had 2 service packs already and is stable. Mac's aren't that easy to network anyway. Personal choice: PC. Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 19:49, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

EDIT: you put "Mac pc's and what are the pro's and cons of windows pc's" Mac arent PC's. Generally, PC = Windows. Macs = well Macs. Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 20:00, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

PC is generaly used to refer to the hardware that Windows will run on. So a PC could be running Linux or BSD as well.

There are even a few folk who ignore refuse to acknowledge the common usage of our language and use the archaic acronym expansion of PC ("personal computer") and try to claim that any computer a person owns is a PC, including Macs. Those people are crazy. APL (talk) 20:17, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the term "PC" for "Windows" is used by Mac people in a feeble attempt to claim that the Mac is not a PC. Over time, they have been able to brainwash most people into believing that a Mac is not a PC. It is a wondrous machine that will not only look pretty on your desk but also cleanse your soul as you bask the sweet glow of its screen. Those who are "crazy" enough to not get brainwashed still see the Mac as a PC running Mac OS. -- kainaw™ 03:38, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, all six of you who haven't been 'brainwashed' by the advent of convenient and useful terminology used to distinguish between Mac hardware and IBM Compatible hardware, are a vanishing minority who just wind up confusing people. (Like those of us who still pronounce "Gif" in the original and correct way, so that it sounds like a brand of peanut butter.)APL (talk) 12:59, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I still recall an era when there were two kinds of computers (10 kinds of computers?). There were "IBM-Compatible" ("PC") and there was "Everything else." In the present world of internet-applications and effective software distribution, there are far fewer programs which are not available in some form, for all platforms. (Video games are a notable exception).

I would recommend the PC because you will probably get higher performance for the same price; you will have more choices for hardware and software upgrades, and you will not be misled into thinking of your computer as an "appliance" - because whether we use our machine for word processing, internet browsing, graphics, video, ... computers are for computation. Nimur (talk) 14:50, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

There are two important aspects to take into consideration. PC's are by far the most dominant of the two, so if you need to do something which you have no idea how to, you are far more likely to have a friend who's a PC guru to help you. Looking for help for a MAC related issue will take that little bit more time and effort. PC/Windows software is also massively more dominant than MAC, so if you're looking for utilities and/or apps that do obscure or specialised things you're far more likely to find something that does the job on a PC. This is not to mention drivers for any sort of peripheral you might need. Everyone will write a Windows driver for their hardware but not many will bother writing MAC drivers. Then of course there's the highly illegal issue of pirate software and games which are easily found for PC (on the 'net or from a friend of a friend....) which you'd struggle to get for MAC. Zunaid©® 14:28, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

See my post above. It's not true to say that PCs are "massively more dominant" in software. As I wrote above, most mainstream applications are available for, and run equally well, on both platforms. And looking at the OP's question, I have a hunch he/she is not going to be looking for obscure or specialised apps/utilities/peripherals. As for tech support, there are Mac forums all over the place where you are likely to get a helpful reply very quickly indeed (that's my experience, anyway, for what it's worth). --Richardrj ^{talk email} 14:38, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

• use mac if you like the way it 'works' use PC if you want to connect with more people. use MAc if you are not technically minded. 86.143.165.201 (talk) 13:16, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

If you want to Get a Mac, get a mac! It is just another computer with user friendly hardware and running a well-polished operating system environment. It is NOT a way to attain nirvana. It is NOT perfect (although it is 'better' and more intuitive for some people). If you are looking for a desktop (and not a notebook), want to install Linux, or want to play those Bungie games, you might be better off building your own system. You will learn a lot about computers just by installing and using Linux. Just remember that Linux is not Windows. I don't think I can recommend MacBook Air to anyone as their primary (or only) computer yet ... (unless they have meticulous cost-effective wireless broadband Internet access where they are). Kushal 02:33, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

What is the max size (in km) that the battlefield 2 engine support???

What is the max size (in km) that the battlefield 2 engine support?? 189.97.86.35 (talk) 18:17, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

For those like me who have thus far been ignorant of what a "bf2 engine" might be, apparently it is a game engine for "Battlefield 2". --Sean 20:03, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Photoshop

Is there a group of Photoshop (or any similar photo altering program) enthusiasts on the net (or wiki??) that can alter a picture for me pro bono? --Endless Dan 21:51, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Hello Endless Dan, just to pick a few there is Photoshop Forums, Devppl Forums and Team Photoshop Forums. For a full list try simple search strings such as 'Photoshop Forums' in Google, Yahoo! or similar. Adam (Manors) 22:09, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. --Endless Dan 12:21, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

For use here, we have a bunch of helpful folks at Wikipedia:Graphic Lab. --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:06, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Cookies and user click trails

Hello, a question for you. Do websites share server log and IP address data with their advertising and tracking partners? For example, if say ebay.com as a customer hires 2o7.net to serve ads and analyze its customers' interactions with ebay, do both companies share access to those server logs? During an average day I deny cookies from 2o7, advertising, atdmt, att, bridgetrack, collarity, contextweb, doubleclick, google, hitbox, insightexpress, mcclatchyinteractive, questionmarket, realmedia, revsci, specificclick, tacoda, ugamsolutions, zwire and usually lots more (and I also use NoScript in Firefox which stops some requests). I asked an admin and looked at RFCs 2616 and 2965--and apologize if this is a FAQ--but I don't know enough about how commercial websites are run to answer this myself. Thanks for any thoughts. -Susanlesch (talk) 21:59, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

No, that's not how it usually works. Advertising firms do track you across many different websites, but they don't look at the server logs directly; they most often use what is called a third-party cookie. It works like this: say you are on site SomeServer, which advertises using the firm FastAd (two fictional companies, obviously) to serve ads. So when you go to SomeServer, you see a big banner at the top of the page. That image doesn't come from SomeServers server, it comes from FastAds (that is, the ad-firms) server. Since that image is fetched from a different server, it either reads or installs a new cookie in your browser. Now, assuming FastAd has ads on all SomeServers pages, wherever you go on SomeServer, you are going to get an ad from FastAd, and that cookie will be read by them, every time.

I gather you already understand some of this, because you very prudently have already blocked a bunch of cookies from companies :) The point is, 207.net has no need to look at the logs directly, they can track you fine around ebay just by using cookies. They can see every page you clicked on.

The really scary part is of course that SomeSite isn't FastAds (back to the fictional example :) only client; FastAd probably have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of partners. So anywhere you go online, if that site uses FastAd, then that company will know exactly where you've been. They can gather an enormous amount of data that way, without ever having to look at a server log. On the internet, Big Brother isn't government agencies, it's advertising companies. I guess that's better than the government, but frankly, I don't really trust either of them. --Oskar 07:01, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I guess I should add another thing to my answer. Cookies are possibly not the only information ebay shares with their ad-partners, they could very easily share a bunch more: your sex, your age, your location, your purchases, etc., anything that might help the agency target ads to you more efficiently. I don't know, I don't work at ebay. But they don't share their entire server logs. --Oskar 07:12, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Those "third-party cookies" associated with inline images are the exact issue covered by RFC 2965 section 3.3.6. Those cookies are supposed to be ignored. It's a "MUST" in the RFC. A client which accepts those cookies is defective, according to this document which is the highest authority on the use of HTTP cookies.

Now the bonus question: what do you call a business based on routinely gaining access to information stored on other people's computers, which is only available to you because of defects in their software? --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 07:49, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, Oskar and tcsetattr, for trying to answer this. If their cookies are denied, I assumed that the partners, let's pick on 2o7.net again, must record an IP address, otherwise they'd have nothing on which to track the visitor. Thus the question about sharing logs with their customers, e.g. ebay--if both parties have access to the IP address, there's little point in denying cookies. That's quite a reading of the RFC, tcsetattr (when I read that I thought that since the user agent knows the origin of the cookie request it is a "verifiable" transaction, forgetting the obvious design assumption of browsers, that most users have only the address bar to go on). Cookie monsters have been studied at places like CDT for ten years haven't they? I'm surprised the RFC isn't in the popular press, for example, this was a recent New York Times/comScore result. -—SusanLesch (talk) 17:40, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Of course the user agent (a.k.a. "client" or "browser") knows where the cookies are coming from - how would they get there otherwise? What they mean is did the user (a.k.a. "human") intend to start a session with that third party, or even have a chance to see that it was going to happen? Not if the images are retrieved automatically as part of the rendering of a web page, he didn't.

I have little doubt that what the authors were thinking when they wrote the definition of an unverifiable transaction was "DoubleClick bastards! This should kill them off." --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 21:42, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

And that definition is dated 2000, eight years ago. —SusanLesch (talk) 21:52, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

One more question, cross-site scripting says "many web applications tie session cookies to the IP address of the user who originally logged in" (statement is unsourced). From what I read the RFCs talk about the host or server IP address but not the user's IP address. So, my assumption is wrong, the cookie-setting partner, let's say 2o7.net, actually does have my IP address? Also I guess, if customer A acquires partner B (like Google and DoubleClick or Microsoft and Yahoo!) they can merge their logs? —SusanLesch (talk) 08:57, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

April 24

Disabling Windows XP automatic folder type detection

Windows XP just loves to scan my folders and guess what kind of folder it is (image, audio, etc). I tried disabling everything that could be related to this, but it still does it. I like the classic explorer layout much more, and with everything sorted by either type or mod. date (and occasionally, size) on list mode, and without the system trying to figure what I'm doing.

The problem is, XP gets it wrong, and it keeps thinking my download folder is strictly a music folder, and it just sorts everything by name and removes the options I want from the "sort by" menu and replaces them with the music-related crap (artist, track, album). So every time, when I want to see things by modified date instead of type, I have to change from list to details, add a modified date column, switch back to list and finally sort it accordingly. It's really annoying as it happens every single time.

Is there any way to completely stop this behavior? I'm talking about locking the folder display mode entirely. I searched the web but I got vague answers that were unrelated to what I'm trying to accomplish.

If everything fails, I'm just gonna get a third party program to do the job. Asking this over here is my last attempt at a fix. Thanks in advance! — Kieff | Talk 03:26, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Sometimes deleting "desktop.ini" and "folder.htt", helps in some degree. Effect have been only temporary and this does not works for some folders. There also were also unregistering shmedia.dll (by executing regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll), but it often does not helps either. Brutally erasing shmedia.dll also does not helps. Using third party program probably will be easiest method (only issue there would be that, the win+e keyboard shortcut works only for windows explorer and not for any third party programs). -Yyy (talk) 08:11, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

hash fails

Do copyright holders or governments deliberately flood torrents with hash fails to prevent downloads? My "friend" has was downloading a DVD but it became impossible to finish because of hash fails, all coming from many different seeders and peers with a variation on the IP address "available.above.net", all using Azureus/2.4.0.2. Last week a different torrent of the same DVD was posted to isohunt.com and "my friend" began downloading it. The speed was good at 500/kps until today when nearly 30 different seeders and peers all from "available.above.net" showed up in the peers list on utorrent. Since then the download has not advanced from 43% because of hash fails. How can I solve the problem? xxx User:Hyper Girl 11:36, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I should say that there is not a problem with downloading other torrents, only the Avril Lavigne My World DVD. Original link [9] and last weeks link [10]. xxx User:Hyper Girl 11:40, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

This is more likely a problem with your router. Some routers will occasionaly mangle BitTorrent's long and complicated packets. The most common type of this supposedly occurs when the router tries to be too clever and automatically translates all IP addresses that appear in a packet. However, with a giant torrent files, there is a very good chance that one of the chunks will, by shear chance, contain a section of data that 'looks like' the IP address the router is looking for and it will 'helpfully' translate it for you. Breaking that chunk. Typically this will leave you stuck at 99% completion as your torrent client hopelessly re-downloads the same chunk over and over again.

Information on this problem and how to fix is here : [11]

Keep in mind that there is a real danger of copyright holders logging into a torrent and getting a list of all the IP addresses involved. They can then complain to your ISP and get your Internet shut off. (At least, they can in USA.) Always remember that the Internet is a public place. APL (talk) 12:55, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

(after EC) You could solve the problem by actually buying the CD instead of stealing it. --LarryMac | Talk 12:56, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I can't say whether its government action or not, but from what you've described it definitely seems deliberate. You could try PeerGuardian, which can block any IP address you suspect of sending bad data. Hope that helps. Think outside the box 13:23, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I was thinking, won't your client block ips that cause hash fails? I know utorrent does, but I guess if there are loads of them it could take a while. Think outside the box 13:27, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that Azureus will blacklist clients that send chunks failing the hash. Makes the error I mentioned above all the more aggravating because it can cause legit clients to be blacklisted APL (talk) 13:55, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

sanity check : Make sure you have enough disk space. I just remembered that some versions of Azureus give strange errors if your disk is full. APL (talk) 13:55, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks everyone! I don't think its a problem with my router because its only packets from "available.above.net" which cause errors, and those addresses were not there yesterday. Plus, the same problem struck the previous Avril Lavigne torrent, but doesn't affect any other torrents I download. I think its either Avril herself or someone who doesn't like her who is doing it. I will check out peer guardian and report back. xxx User:Hyper Girl 14:27, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

OMG thank you sooo much! I can report that peer guardian worked like a dream! The download is much slower now, only 50/kps, but no more hash fails :) Should be done by tomorrow. A huge thank you to everyone to answered. xxx User:Hyper Girl 16:52, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm sure Avril appreciates your support. although maybe lack of sales will make her stop . . . --LarryMac | Talk 19:59, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

...and maybe a big warning at the top of this page will make people stop soapboxing... but probably not. -- Coneslayer (talk) 20:04, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I would support you in the "No soapboxing" if I was not one of the accused myself. Wait, am I doing it right now? AHH! :D Kushal 22:33, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Looks like you're right. There are a bunch of forum posts complaining about "poisoners" hitting Avril torrents. [12] [13] APL (talk) 20:12, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Memory Stick Pro on the Clie?

I recently purchased a Sony Clie PEG-S360, and I have heard that it can only use standard Memory Sticks. Is there an OS update that will allow ot to use the Memory Stick Pro? --Zemyla^t 15:45, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Well having owned a Clie before I used to use Memory sticks which would go into the top of the device. Firstly, have you tried popping in a Memory Stick Pro? Secondly, if it doesnt work, the problem is more to do with hardware than software so I dont think there will be any OS update. Let me know if im wrong Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 19:54, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

My screen broke today. It doesn't matter anymore. Nothing matters anymore. Thank you for your help. --168.53.172.38 (talk) 15:12, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

cd problems

i had a few months ago copied 3 rar files from a cd. but due to a virus infection the computer had to be formatted. now if i enter the cd,2 of the files are ok but one of them doesn't show the rar icon and when clicked upon,the computer says not responding. this is NOT the cd's problem since it's ok on others' compuers. please help. --scoobydoo (talk) 16:35, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

When the computer was formatted it got rid of the RAR file format, all you need to do is download it and install it again. The reason it works on other PC's is because that RAR (so to speak) hasn't gone only the one on the formatted PC has. Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 19:57, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

This is wrong. If the computer can recognise one .RAR file (or two, in this case) it will recognise them all. So if the computer did '[get] rid of the RAR file format' it has clearly 'got it back', for every .RAR file it encounters. No idea what the problem might be, though. Sorry. Joe^Talk_Work 12:02, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Ahh, sorry misread the question. Thought that 2 of the files (which were a different type and not RAR) worked but the rest that were RAR didn't. Not sure what the problem could be then, sorry :( Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 10:45, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Network Drives

I need a network drive which I can also put on to my MacBook Pro, without the USB port. What's the best way of doing this? For example, can I connect with the ethernet port on the mac, or can you get plugs which convert an ethernet or USB port into an ethernet one? (I can't use the USB ports because both of them are used anyway, there is only a firewire and ethernet port available. I've never really used either. I'm on Leopard, so it's for Time Machine when connected directly.)--Jayne smith (talk) 16:41, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps what you really want is a USB hub, which you can buy very inexpensively. It will turn one USB port into several. Make sure it's USB 2.0. USB 1.1 is much slower. -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:43, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

A hub like this [14] and then I can get an external drive with a USB port in it, like this [15].--Jayne smith (talk) 18:01, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

But specifically, can you put a network drive into a normal computer ethernet port and expect it go like any other USB or firewire drive?Jayne smith (talk) 18:09, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Simply, no. What you wanna do with the Network Drive, is plug the ethernet (CAT 5e) cable from the network drive into the router (on a LAN RJ45 Jack) then map a network drive from your Mac. Anyway Networking related questions (TCP/IP, LAN, WLAN etc....) ask me on my talk page. Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 19:45, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I think he wants an NSLU2, maybe with a WLAN usb stick attached.88.217.64.113 (talk) 20:16, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

@Dep Garcia: thanks, I think I understand :-) Though, the whole point is to have a drive versatile enough, so it works either as a network or local drive. If I get you right, this is how you set it up as a network drive?

@88.217: you seem to understand. Looks like it would work, though more complicated than I expected.--Jayne smith (talk) 09:05, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

And going at $50 on ebay [16] And being Linux, probably ample of online user support and modification etc.Jayne smith (talk) 09:10, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that would be how you set it up as a network drive. If you use two or more Macs/PC's in your house then a network drive would be a good option, personally. Because you can share files and when you get bored of using one PC just move onto another and use that one with your files being on the drive and it serves as an backup drive aswell. I understand that both USB ports are unavailable to use, but have you tried plugging the network drive straight into the ethernet jack? This is ad hoc Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 10:27, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

No, I haven't tried that, because I don't have a network drive yet. You also said above ("Simply, no") that network drives don't work locally in ethernet ports, so I looked for a network drive with a Firewire option. There's plenty USB network ones, and USB Firewire. But nothing seems to have all three. It's likely for my own use just on my own laptop, but I guess anyone else on the network could use it. But I see simple USB hubs and NSLU2.Jayne smith (talk) 20:32, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Ahhh, sorry about all the confusion. Just thought you had one. If you don't fancy the network option. You could buy a USB hub which allows you to connect 4 USB devices to one USB port on your PC leaving one port free. example So you got the two devices that are plugged into your computers USB port already, plug them into the hub along with the drive. Let me know if any questions etc... Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 10:54, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

A script that searches out and responds to certain elements in a website?

Hi all. I'm only medium in the field of programming, but I was wondering if anyone could give me some resources, or some terminology to search for in, say, google, about a script that would:

• Go to a website

• Search out (in its source code, preferably), certain sections of text, ie words or phrases.

• Depending on what they were, would then act accordingly.

Just for an example, say a webpage contained the word "fuck", then the script could create a frame that says "This website uses profanity." Or if a website is an e-book, with a certain page number, it could search through the text until it finds, say, "Page: 34" and then, in a frame, print out the links for page 33 and page 35 accordingly. Just examples, so you can figure out what I'm trying to ask here.

Again, any ready-made scripts (the simpler to understand and experiment with, the better) would be best, but also any resources towards learning how to do so, or terminology for such scripts so that I can search out and learn at leisure (my current searches are failing horribly) would be great!

Much help appreciated ! -=- Xhin -=- (talk) 20:27, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

That sounds like something that could be done in Firefox with Greasemonkey. --LarryMac | Talk 21:15, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

April 25

Extending Classes in Java

Hi. I just have a quick question. If I am extending a class in java -- after I call super on it -- what happens with the instance variables of the extended class? Can I use simply their names [when calling from the lower class] (such as example) or should I use the format of (super.example)? Furthermore, how should I use its methods? Should I use (randomMethod()) or (super.randomMethod())? Thank you Sharpshot240 (talk) 04:04, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

This is largely a style question, I would go with only using super where necessary (e.g. calling an original version of a method that is reimplemented). I can't think of any reason that I would want to hide a superclass variable then access it. One thing to watch is overriding a method called in a superclass's constructor, because at the time it is called the sub class variables will not have been initialized, see [17]. -- Q Chris (talk) 07:34, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Tracing IP address

I am trying to trace the sender of an email. I know how to get the sender's IP address through email headers, but when I run a WHOIS search on the IP address (which begins 10.*), all it tells me is that the address is owned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. I was expecting more from WHOIS, like a domain name or something. Can the email header tell me any more? --Bluegrouper (talk) 08:30, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

The email headers usually feature lots of different IP addresses. Have you tried all of them? Also, so there are many "Whois" servers. I usually try ARIN, then the links to other the continental Whois services at the foot of that page, and finally Sam Spade. Remember though, if you are trying to track down someone who is sending you spam, they are unlikely to respond to your attempts to get them to stop and are more likely to add you to their "suckers list" instead. Astronaut (talk) 10:53, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

You understand that E-mail can contain forged headers, right? See E-mail and E-mail authentication for more information.

Atlant (talk) 11:36, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Don't bother trying to track down a 10.*.*.* IP address, that's an IP in the RFC1918 address space, used on private networks (such as the user's home LAN or the sender's ISP's internal network). You want to look at the IP address of the system logged by your own ISP, because that's really the only reliable Received: header (given that you trust your own ISP). Anything else can and will be added by the sender, and is possibly forged. -- JSBillings 11:53, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

We have an article on private networks like 10.*.*.*. It is probably a step in the routing of your email that involved one server sending to another mail server internally on an internal network. Perhaps you should look at the next IP in the trail. --Spoon! (talk) 12:26, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I know email can contain forged headers, and no it's not spam I'm trying to trace. This tutorial suggests (point 5, three-quarters of the way down) that the sender's actual IP address will always be the in the bottommost Received: header. It also says (point 3, a little higher) that the topmost Received: header (which I'm assuming is the one JSBillings describes as "the IP address of the system logged by your own ISP" contains the IP address of the sender's email server, not the IP address of the sender himself. Given what you say above about the RFC1918 address space, is there any way I can identify the sender? --Bluegrouper (talk) 12:34, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

That page you gave is somewhat correct, but in your case, the sender's IP isn't actually helpful, because it's on a private network. You need to look at the Received: header where the ISP accepts the connection from the sender, which might be the second-to-last Received: header. Unfortunately, as with services like Google Mail, who uses a private network internally, it won't be too helpful. -- JSBillings 13:11, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Also, the topmost Received: header isn't always going to be the point where your ISP accepted the connection from the sender's ISP. Most ISPs nowadays bounce the message around through primary MX systems, some antivirus/antispam systems and finally to mail-store systems. The tutorial you list must be somewhat dated to have such a simplistic view of mail systems. -- JSBillings 13:14, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

While whois is helpful for finding out which company owns an IP address, it is worthless for finding out the location of people using large ISPs. I prefer to use traceroute. It will break through the "it is somewhere on this continent" range and show you which routers/switches were used to get to the IP address. Those routers/switches tend to have names which identify their general location. -- kainaw™ 16:15, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Moniter the remote system

Hai

I need Help from You pepole.Please clear it.Mointering the Remote system through lan connection is Possible? and if it is Possible how is it? please explain me.

Because I am Adminstrator in my company.In My company many of them Open the Server And Doing Somthing so i want to watch the system at any other system is connected in lan.

Main thing The person Don't to Know if i watching my system from Remote place. So please help me as fast as.

Advance Thank You

R.Rajesh Kumar —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.51.157 (talk) 12:39, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I won't start talking about rights to privacy, but if (an example) the administrator at my workplace did this kind of monitoring, I certainly wouldn't work there.

Anyway, for Windows, you could try radmin, or VNC. Or you can use a trojan horse such as SubSeven - they work well for monitoring.

And please sign your posts with four tildes: ~~~~

--grawity 13:13, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I think UltraVNC deserves a look. To answer Grawity, I would say I wouldn't either. I hope that my employers would trust me because if my employer did not trust me, they would probably fire me. (Dang, I am "soapboxing" again!) Kushal 01:54, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps an alternative to the "invading employees privacy" route, would be to get a senior manager to lay down the law regarding server updates. You should at least have the backing of your managers if you took your concerns to them. I would also suggest you only grant server access to those who need it. Astronaut (talk) 10:33, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't know if there is a way to have absolutely zero leakage. Stuff happens, even at top secret places like Cupertino, California. You may be able to avoid detection of instances of oversight but it is difficult to maintain complete secrecy of what you are doing. Therefore, what you asked

“ Main thing The person Don't to Know if i watching my system from Remote place. ”

does not seem to be possible. Please remember that there are other ways employees can find out that a monitoring system exists. Therefore, I would suggest you tell them about it upfront. Depending on where you live, it might be an legal battle (which, if I were you, I would want to avoid). IANAL, but please make sure you talk to your corporate lawyer AND get a second opinion from someone unrelated to your company.

Do you just want to monitor the servers in your company and not the individual workstations? If so, you should use user access control. If you are using Unix or Unix-like operating system in your servers, you can do a lot of fine tuning on which user gets what amount of access. Logging their activities should also be possible without a lot of effort. Just let the Wikipedians know that you need help with these operations. I am sure quite a few Wikipedians around here are conversant with Unix-like servers.

If this response was off-topic or unhelpful, please let me know. Kushal 21:09, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Can you tell us more. What operating system is your server? Who is doing something with the server - your employees or hackers? And what do you want to monitor - the programs being run on the server; the network traffic; memory/hard disk usage? Also, why is it important that nobody knows you're monitoring them? --h2g2bob (talk) 21:36, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

running wengophone

trying to run wengophone on ubuntu 7.10

I unzip the tar and try to run the binary (no other makes or compiles necessary it's all standalone from what i understand) and get this:

skb@skb:~/Desktop/WengoPhone-2.1.2-minsizerel$ ./wengophone.sh exec: 20: ./qtwengophone: not found skb@skb:~/Desktop/WengoPhone-2.1.2-minsizerel$ ./qtwengophone bash: ./qtwengophone: No such file or directory

but qtwengophone is clearly evident on an ls

I've had this problem before when running the binary for X-lite softphone too. any ideas? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.147.37.158 (talk) 20:50, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Photoshop

Hello all,

How can I make gradients in colours with Photoshop CS?

Thanks,

BG7 23:38, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

With the Gradient Tool. Googling "photoshop gradient tool" turns up many helpful sites, like this one and this one. --75.36.41.18 (talk) 05:22, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

If you're just starting to learn image manipulation, I suggest learning GIMP to free you from commercial product dependency. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:02, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Or... if you already have Photoshop CS, you might as well learn the industry standard. (Or you could meet it half-way and try GIMPshop, but then again, you could just use what you have.) --75.36.41.18 (talk) 07:08, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

If by "have" you mean "pirated", no one would pay thousands of dollars for something they don't even know how to use. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:40, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Is it not possible the question asker is using a school PC, and simply expanding their horizons? Additionally, isn't there a student discount? An aspiring art student might spend the substantially more trivial cost for a student license... neither here nor there, 75.36 has addressed the question. Ironmandius (talk) 16:32, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Or a work PC. I've never purchased Photoshop myself but I've never pirated it. --140.247.11.7 (talk) 17:12, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

reset Thanks for the help. I have photoshop in two ways. 7.0 at school, and CS at home (oh and soon CS3 on my mac!). I do know how to use photoshop, I just want to know how to do proper gradients as in the past I have just used either paintbrush to paint layers, or a rubber with transparency.

Thanks,

BG7 16:39, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

April 26

FirstClass: Accepting External Incoming Email

Hello. How can I accept incoming email outside of the FirstClass community (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc.)? I can already send email outside of the FirstClass community. Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 00:26, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Definitions

Hey! I have to give the representation on Monday, Dear all ! What i need is just the definitions ,(in various styles) of monitor,scanner, keyboard,and printer,from ancient to remote.Yes it's quite simple but yet some rejuvenated definitions are required.Any help will be helpful. Thanks--121.52.144.114 (talk) 09:27, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, our articles have definitions of Visual display unit, image scanner, keyboard and computer printer (there are various types listed at History of printing) — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 09:40, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Free Movie Making Program

hi...........looking for 'the best' movie making program thats free and can get of internet.......any sugestions........thanks (oh and preferably needs to be able to edit .MOV and the format that you get google video/youtube videos in when you download them) thanks..--81.79.83.155 (talk) 11:19, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Which operating system are you using? Windows XP has Movie Maker built in. The latest versions of Mac OS X have iMovie HD as a part of iLife. Various distributions of Linux probably have even better video editing software packages included with the operating system. On the other hand, I hear that Adobe Premiere is pretty good, probably one of the best movie making programs. It costs a ton of money, though. For starters, Comparison of video editing software and List of video editing software have a lot of information in them. As a side, I want to tell you that Google is quite flexible in the formats of videos it accepts. You do not need to upload videos in .FLV (Flash Video) format to be able to upload videos to YouTube or Google Video. Kushal 20:46, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Glitches in Google News

Navigating Google's help section is really rather confusing to me. Can anyone tell me where I can report news items that show up in the wrong sections of Google News? A while back I saw a headline for a storm system going through Kansas in the entertainment section. This time it's an even more off putting blunder. Dismas|^(talk) 13:30, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

It appears as though you can report a number of issues here. Click the "View details and report" and you just need the article title. --Kateshortforbob 15:54, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Thank you! Dismas|^(talk) 03:47, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Video Encoding for Ipods

Hi Everyone,

This is kind of a specific question but I think has broad applications. I've been trying to transfer lectures that are videotaped for us at school onto my ipod using IMTOO Movie to Ipod converter. However, everytime i try it, the video is wayyy out of sync with the audio (i.e. the video will run for 45 minutes, for an hour long lecture (the audio runs the full hour)).

The stuff I've read online amounts more or less to "Adjust the Frame Rate of the Video" but I'm not sure where to start? Is there anyway of looking at the video file and finding out the frame rate to use??? This is a typical lecture recording file.

And how does it work, is the higher the framerate the FASTER the video will play (i.e. if i set a framerate of 8 million, will the video part be over in like 2 seconds)?

Thanks! --Cacofonie (talk) 14:32, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Frame rate is handy. "is the measurement of the frequency (rate) at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames." I believe the common frame rates are 24 (ish), 30, and 60. A video is just a series of pictures taken often enough that when shown together, the brain blurs them into the illusion of motion. Frames, in this case, are those pictures, and the rate is the number of pictures (generally per second) that you're using to generate that illusion. Long story short, this can be just a simple math problem. If the run time is 45 minutes, SHOULD be 60 minutes, and you currently have a frame rate of 60... solve for X. Ironmandius (talk) 16:29, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

windows desktop items

Is it true that having a cluttered desktop (win XP) can slow down computer performance? i remember hearing something about the 'active desktop' function in the explanation that was given me. If so, is it jsut files and folders saved tot he desktop, or shortcuts as well? Please forward a copy of your reply to my talk page. --Shaggorama (talk) 17:17, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Active Desktop basically means your desktop shows a web page. It never really caught on and chances are you don't have it enabled. I don't think that the number of icons on your desktop will have any noticeable effect on performance. -- BenRG (talk) 19:06, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

As a side, I would recommend exceeding a minimum of 128 MB of RAM and 600 MHz Pentium 3 processor. If you have a recent computer, please disregard my comment. Kushal 20:34, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

book for AutoCad(student edition)

Anyone know a good book for AutoCad 2008 that is "good" for a High School student that covers some of the basics step by step because I need some help with using AutoCad, if someone can please help me. You can contact me at my talk page. Rio de oro (talk) 22:58, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Goggle books has a couple with limited preview hhttp://books.google.com/books?q=AutoCAD+2008&btnG=Search+Books So you can have a look whether any of those are helpful. Different people like different kinds of books. The type I find most useful drive my significant other "up the well known" and vice versa. Amazon.com also sometimes has preview options. (Just two I use, not that I'd like to advertise for anyone.)--Lisa4edit (talk) 08:41, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

April 27

difference between wireless broadband and wifi

Hi, I work for a telecommunications company, retail only (so I don't know much) and we use "wi-fi" generally to mean cable or adsl broadband with a modem that has a wired connection to the wall, and a wireless connection to your computer. Now it seems that wi-fi is a general term for a lot of wireless technologies. So I have a few questions on this and other matters:

1. Does the definition of wi-fi include our use of the term, or are we just using our own "in-house" jargon?

2. What is the difference between wi-fi and wireless broadband (which in Australia always means using a mobile phone network, and a usb, express card, pc card or mobile phone as the modem)?

3. Is it possible/ easy for someone to steal your bandwidth if you use these wireless broadband services? Where can I read more on this?

Thanks in advance. Please note that I've been looking for this stuff on wikipedia and google, but can't find anything to summarise the situation. This is partially because I still suffer under the tedium of dialup, so please take pity. 203.221.126.181 (talk) 04:59, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi there, firstly Wi-Fi stands for "Wireless Fidelity" a term coined by The Wi-Fi Alliance. Wi-Fi is basically a wireless network. A wireless router with internet cable plugged in sends out a signal to computer with built-in wireless cards, Laptop cards, USB sticks etc, or mobile phones with Wi-Fi enabled.

Lets imagine for a moment that you have a wired network, all computer have to have ethernet cables plugged into them etc... This is a LAN (Local Area Network) now imagine all those computers are wireless, this is a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). Broadband is a fast connection to the internet which is always on. Wireless broadband just means wireless internet. It is possible for someone to steal/use your bandwidth, files and printers on your network, unless you have security enabled on your router such as Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), MAC address filtering. Mobile phone internet uses that carriers cellular network. Dial-up refers to internet over the phone lines, usually restriced to 56k. Anymore questions welcome  :) Regards Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 11:14, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

What's in a force-feedback pack?

What is the hardware in game controllers that actually causes the 'rumble' called? Also, if you happen to know, how much do they cost (the bits inside that rumble, not the controllers themselves)?

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.84.35.115 (talk) 05:09, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Rumble pack--Goon Noot (talk) 06:28, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

I understand that that is what it's called. But what piece of hardware inside the pack causes the rumble and what is it called?

It's just a motor with an unbalanced weight attached. The motor is fixed in place and spins the weight at high speed, which causes the whole thing to vibrate. You can see an image here. The same kind of thing is used to make mobile (cell) phones vibrate, though obviously with a smaller weight and motor. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 09:52, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Install/Unistall

Excuse my ignorance if this is a basic question. Why can it take what seems like an eternity to install a program, but only takes less than a second to uninstall it? I'm guessing they're not installing completely, am I right? I thought I'd give 'world of warcraft' a go, I installed from the DVD, then it downloaded all kinds of updates and patches, all up it took about an hour. After 5 minutes of the game I decided it wasn't for me so I pressed uninstall. One second later (Literally just ONE second!) and it said 'uninstall complete'! Surely it couldn't have uninstalled that quick?Iiidonkeyiii (talk) 09:35, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Why not? To install WoW your computer had to read lots of data from a DVD, download it from the internet, and so on. That takes time. Uninstalling can be more complicated, but at a bare minimum, your computer has to rewrite your hard disk directory to say the WoW files aren't there any more. This doesn't take much time. Remember that deleting files doesn't actually remove the data from your computer (that would take longer). Algebraist 10:00, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Google Error message

I keep getting a pop up box with my google page that says "http://7,gmodules.com says: There is no data!" That box will block the page until I click the X (I try to remember not to click "o.k." in case it's a parasite.) It comes up intermittently. I tried to google for it (sic!) but nothing came up except that it seems to be linked somehow to videos. There is no feed for videos to my page that I'm aware of. Anyone know how I could get rid of it or where I might find more info. (And yes, I've chased all my antivirus programs after it and they came up empty.) Lisa4edit (talk) 10:36, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Bar at the bottom of the browser

...that shows the url of links when you hover the mouse over a link. How do you call it?217.168.3.246 (talk) 10:55, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

It's called the Status bar. --Kateshortforbob 11:12, 27 April 2008 (UTC)